The Sports Xchange

Minneapolis, Indianapolis and New Orleans all offer domed stadiums but different downtown atmospheres for football-loving fans to take in before and after the NFL's marquee event.

Cold-weather Super Bowl hosts have become more frequent in recent years with Indianapolis and New Jersey -- outdoor MetLife Stadium is the host site of the upcoming Super Bowl in February 2014 -- breaking the seal for unconventional stadium sites to be awarded the game.

The host site will not be put to vote for Super Bowl LII until the NFL's spring meetings in Atlanta in May, well after any backlash from the open-air experience at MetLife Stadium is tabulated.

Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis was roundly applauded, as was the city, for the 2012 Super Bowl.

New Vikings Stadium is set to open in 2016 at the site of the Metrodome, which will be leveled following the 2013 season.

That seven-level enclosed stadium, which has a projected tab of more than $975 million, is to have a partially see-through roof, according to stadium renderings released in May.